Schilling posts a list of 12 possible teams

Curt Schilling filed for free agency today, and has posted a list of 12 teams on his blog that he’d consider playing for next season. He lists three AL teams and nine NL teams as possibilities, almost all of them contenders.

This is the first time that Schilling would be a free agent in his career. Schilling insists that he is only looking for a one-year deal. He also wrote goodbye notes to his teammates and told Dennis and Callahan on WEEI yesterday that there was a “very realistic chance” that he’s worn the Red Sox uniform for the last time.

Schilling will have some value next year and he is a historic Red Sox, but $13M is a little high for what I think he can give us next year. The only real reservation I have about signing someone else is that Schilling’s deal would be for just one year, while another free agent would likely demand a longer deal. Alternatively, we could seek a veteran starter in a trade this offseason.

We would probably want someone seeking a short-term deal due to bad performance in 2007 or injury (the others worth signing will all want long years). Bartolo Colon, Jason Jennings and Kris Benson would fit that category. However, you can bet that the best of these will be re-signed by their teams in the coming two weeks. When we get around to a final list, I can get around to specific free agent names for this one.

I might advocate trading for a veteran arm. As for who to get, we would look for someone who is approaching free agency and probably has one year left on his contract. We’d be looking at pitching-rich teams looking to shed salary or teams who likely won’t be able to re-sign these pitchers after 2008. With Coco Crisp being the most tradeable chip we have, Minnesota (who just lost Torii Hunter) and Atlanta (who just lost Andruw Jones) are likely trading partners. With the right chips, Johan Santana might be obtainable, but he’d be very expensive. The Yankees are said to be prepared to offer Melky Cabrera, Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes. Atlanta could be willing to trade Tim Hudson, whose salary more than doubles to $13M this season.